Slow Play Still a Popular Topic After the Masters, But Still Without Solutions

Runner-up Brooks Koepka was vocal about the slow play on Sunday, but as Alex Miceli writes, it's a balancing act to try to combat it in pro golf.

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. — Brooks Koepka didn’t win the Masters last week for many reasons, but one that resonates with players, fans and media alike is the slow play exhibited on Sunday.

The first three rounds were slow, but Sunday’s final round of just 53 players in 27 twosomes—in fine weather—was problematic as some players had to wait and, for Koepka, the wait was a problem.

“The group in front of us was brutally slow,” Koepka said after his final round. “Jon (Rahm) went to the bathroom like seven times during the round, and we were still waiting.”

The group: Patrick Cantlay and Viktor Hovland.

While Hovland may or may not be slow, it was Cantlay who has received most of the criticism from social media.

“I mean, we finished the first hole, and the group in front of us was on the second tee when we walked up to the second tee, and we waited all day on pretty much every shot,” Cantlay said during his press conference at the RBC Heritage. “We waited in 15 fairway, we waited in 18 fairway. I imagine it was slow for everyone.”

Jordan Spieth was once the target of slow-play criticism, but made a point to speed up :: Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated

Maybe not for everyone. Jordan Spieth was 10 shots off the lead starting on Sunday’s final round but his pairing saw little if any slowdown, so why does one group have a fluid round and another has one as slow as if it was playing in maple syrup?

Could it have to do with being in contention versus not or is it inherently that some players are slow and some are not?

Spieth was not always a fast player and when he was becoming labeled with the slow-player moniker, he knew he needed to change as peer pressure made the difference.

“I didn't think it helped me personally,” Spieth said. “But also, I didn't like having that attached to my name. And people do not want to play with me because I was slow. And so I've tried to speed up and have sped up quite a bit since then, and I think that that's something guys should try to do.”

Spieth acknowledges that at Augusta, where you must aim outside of the hole on three- and four-footers, that process takes more time.

Which in turn can slow down play.

Gary Woodland points to features like Aimpoint and the lack of extensive green books as potential issues contributing to slow play.

Aimpoint issues are clear, as it may or may not be a better way to putt but inherently takes more time—and time is the true measure of a slow player.

When the USGA and R&A banned green-reading books, the bodies believed that the essential part of the skill of putting would return.

How Aimpoint does not spit on "essential" is unclear.

“I think it's almost slowed things down because now guys are trying to do it on their own,” Woodland said of the ban. “Which is probably a good thing for the game of golf, but it's just taking more time.”

It seems like a balancing act, finding systems or products that speed up play, but it's a problem when those are looked upon as unfair or not following the essence of golf.

Fines or eventually penalties are the usual way to address slow play, but they're not used enough by rules officials.

“They've obviously talked about a lot of time putting 10 slowest guys up on the board in the locker room, blah, blah. The end of the day, you penalize somebody, nobody wants to get a shot out here, especially when you're playing for how much we're playing for and everything,” Woodland said. “I believe that's the only way to do it. I don't know how else you do it. But I think it's a problem. And I'm not smart enough to figure it out. But I'm looking from the outside and I think penalized is the only way to speed it up.”

As a member of the Player Advisory Council, Cantlay has access to data about slow play that has not been made public.

That data, according to Cantlay, shows that rounds have taken about the same length of time over the last 10 or 20 years.

And while the hole locations, green slopes and wind all lend themselves to slower play at a venue like Augusta National, it ultimately it comes down to one thing.

“I think that's just the nature of playing professional golf,” Cantlay said. “Where every shot matters so much.”